Kai Ryssdal has just agreed to be the host for our exciting evening program! Ryssdal is the host and senior editor of Marketplace, the most widely heard program on business and the economy – radio or television, commercial or public broadcasting – in the country.

Some years ago La Monte Westmoreland invited me to make a guest artist presentation for the advanced panting class he was teaching at Ryman Arts. I was so honored and well received by his class as I made that presentation. Shortly thereafter I began to teach advanced painting for Ryman Arts (2004).

I’m grateful for Thanksgiving. Amidst the turmoil of raucous debate in our nation, I am grateful to have a formal reminder to pause for gratitude. I am more grateful than ever to do our work at Ryman Arts, because every day I see how it makes a positive difference in the world.

In visiting class over the past two weeks, I see more clearly how Ryman Arts is a haven, a safe space for our kids. We focus on the work at hand. When there is chaos outside, the quiet focus on making art has enormous value.

Leah and I stay in touch with our son, Howard, with a telephone call on a regular basis. Howard is an Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Helsinki; he and his family have lived in Finland for almost 20 years.

With the opening of Shanghai Disneyland, the Walt Disney Company’s 12th park around the world, my thoughts turned immediately to the genesis of the Disney Parks and Resorts. It’s easy to write about in a Ryman Arts blog, because the inspiration for our program, Herbert Dickens Ryman, was at the heart of the very beginning. And Disneyland itself is at home in Anaheim because of our co-founder, Harrison Price.

On June 16, I was privileged to attend the opening of the Walt Disney Company’s 12th ”theme park” around the world. What began at Disneyland on a hot summer day in July, 1955 has now spread not only across the USA, but also to the mainland of Europe… and now Asia again, following Tokyo and Hong Kong. Shanghai, its newest location, is the largest city in China, where east has traditionally met west.